Looking Back
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: "They expect me to beat the Elite Four on one go? Seriously?"


**Looking Back**

 _Hardest. Battle. Ever._

Red would never admit it to Lorelei. Sometimes he admitted to his opponent when they'd given him a run for his money (half of it – blacking out was weird like that), but that was the exception rather than the rule. And he wasn't going to admit it now to the first of the Elite Four. Another weirdo who specialized in only one type of pokémon. Though given that it felt like Red and his rival Blue were the only ones who didn't go after just a single type, maybe it was _they_ who were the weirdos. Could they be called the sane ones, when the world was full of the mad?

Charizard didn't know. It was too busy looking tired, yet pleased that it had gained another level.

"Well done," said Lorelei, smiling. "You may proceed."

"Um, sure," Red said. He recalled Charizard into his poke ball and looked up ahead, getting a glimpse of what looked like a fighting dojo of some kind. Like the one in Saffron City, but without the trainers, or the promise of a hitmonlee or hitmonchan as a reward. Just pain, pain, and more pain. "Thanks."

He looked backwards towards Indigo Plateau's pokémon centre. _Really should pay it a visit,_ he thought. He had his share of potions, antidotes, and everything else the Pokémon Mart could sell (another strange thing, how these baubles could be used ad nauseum in battles – didn't that give rich trainers an advantage?), but nothing beat the pokémon centre. They had sweet nurses, the occasional chansey, and most importantly of all, were free.

 _Yeah, centre time._

It wasn't cheating, he told himself. Every time he visited a gym, he never beat the trainers in one sitting. He was just putting himself on an even playing field. That was what a plateau was, wasn't it? An area of flat, elevated land where-

"Don't give up!"

Red stopped in his tracks, and not by his own will. _What?_

And before he knew it he'd turned around, and was back to facing Lorelei, and the rest of the Elite Four. The Elite Three right now he supposed, but that wasn't much better. Three was still a prime number, and prime numbers were always trouble.

 _That was weird._

He turned round and headed back for the centre. Yeah, Team Rocket might go on about trouble and making it double, but Meowth was still part of that group of weirdos. It was a problem of three, not two. Team Rocket only-

"Don't give up!"

He stopped short. Turned. And walked back towards Lorelei.

 _The heck is going on here?_

He couldn't explain it – the words were forcing him to turn back. Were keeping him out of the pokémon centre.

 _Surely…surely they don't expect me to take on all four in one sitting?_

That would be ridiculous. One trainer, winning four battles in a row with weakened pokémon, up against the four greatest pokémon champions in Kanto. Yeah, he had potions and whatnot, but this…this was ridiculous. Not impossible, admittedly, but he'd rather settle for the regular fame of beating the Elite Four, rather than going the golden mile to beat them all in the one go.

And yet the voice told him to go on. A voice whose source he could not identify. Perhaps coming from his conscience, or the depths of his very soul. Reminding him that he had sought out to be the best there ever was, to catch them all as was his course. To travel across the land, searching far and wide to ensure that every pokémon would understand the power-

 _Enough!_

He began walking. Not only was he going mad, but he was falling into poetry as well. A sign of madness if there ever was one.

"Don't give up!"

But he kept walking. Away from Lorelei. Past the wall of madness. Past the jingle of "gotta catch 'em all!" in his mind, leading his body to the abyss of insanity, from which no mortal could return. And after having spent hours finding and capturing Moltres not too long ago, Red knew a thing or two about insanity. And second degree burns as well.

But all of that was in the past. His mind began playing a second, far less catchy theme song, before shutting down on songs all together. He was in the pokémon centre. Free food, free drinks, free healthcare. And no-one protesting about the drain on the economy.

"Red?" The nurse looked up from the counter, an expression of disbelief on her face.

"Hey," he said. He drew out his six poke balls here. "Usual heal please."

"Um…" She trailed off. Her expression remained. Even the chansey in the corner looked confused.

 _Not so smug now that you're not in the Safari Zone are you?_

Red winced – that was a nightmare if there ever was one. That incident with the taures was something he'd like to forget.

"Red?"

"What?" he snapped. "Pokémon. Heal. Now."

"Yes, but…you're not meant to be here. Didn't you hear the voice?"

"What voice?" he lied.

"You know, the voice," the nurse said. "The voice that spurns you to not give up. To keep going on and on, to take on the Elite Four. To-"

"Lady, I've dismantled Team Rocket, got the St. Anne moving, cleansed Lavender Tower of demonic possession, captured over one-hundred and thirty pokémon, and I've come from a town that has two houses and a research lab with a professor who wants me to catch every pokémon in Kanto, but won't lend me his bulbasaur because I've got to 'trade with my friends.' I think I've earnt myself some slack."

"Yes, but, you're not supposed to turn back. No trainer that takes on the Elite Four is supposed to visit the pokémon centre once they've started taking them on."

Red bit his lip – so he wasn't insane. The voice wasn't in his mind, and he could stop humming "it's a whole new world we live in." Because he was in the same world, with the same insanity, and now, had to deal with a faulty healthcare system.

"Is it a rule?" he asked.

"Pardon?"

"Is it a rule?" Red repeated. "Is it stated anywhere that a trainer has to take on the Elite Four in one go."

"Um-"

"A sign? A brochure? Contract? Anything?" Red leant over the desk, smiling like a nidoking. "Well?"

"Well, no," the nurse admitted. "There's no hard and fast rule. But it is tradition, and-"

"So there is no rule," Red said. He tapped a finger by the poke balls. "Healing time. Now."

"…yes, Mister Red."

The nurse took them and put them in the machine. Red reflected how in a few seconds time it would begin its pleasant jingle. And a few minutes after that, would have him six, raring to go pokémon about to take on the Elite Four. Or Three. He wondered if Lorelei had time to heal as well.

 _Meh._

He sat on a bench and flicked open a magazine, heading for the first article. It didn't matter. He was nearly the best trainer in Kanto, he'd nearly collected all 150 Pokémon, and-

 _New discovery – 100 new pokémon discovered in Jhoto!_

"Damn it!"

The nurse looked over. And Red pulled his cap down over his eyes.

He needed the sleep.

* * *

 _A/N_

 _Please tell me that I wasn't the only one who, when playing Red/Blue for the first time, was miffed at the idea of having to take on the Elite Four in one sitting. That some bloody voice was preventing me from returning to the p_ _okémon centre._

 _Anyone?_


End file.
